Cabria (played by Giulietta Masina) is a woman fighting against the world and the Saints, forced in making her living as a prostitute up and down the streets of Rome in late 1950’s, when Italy was still facing post war effects and the economic boom seemed far to come. Her life is tough but she tries to appear tougher nonetheless she continues believing in the rescuing power of love as much as she continues in being brutally deceived…

To add authenticity to dialogues Pier Paolo Pasolini, the famous writer, poet and director, joined Fellini, Ennio Flaiano and Tullio Pinelli to write the script.

A film showing a prostitute as the heroin could undoubtedly being an hazard in 1957, in fact at first it risked to be censored and not to be released, incredibly at the end just one scene was cut, the one showing Cabiria, not in her working hours, meeting a man carrying a sack full of food, blankets and garments who distribute them among poor people living in natural caves in Rome’s surroundings. The scene has been restored in 1998. The story behind this peculiar censorship episode has been told by Fellini himself in a 1983 interview; you can read it in the Nights of Cabiria’s page in the Fondazione Federico Fellini site:http://www.federicofellini.it/en/node/2533

Nights of Cabiria has been shown at the 10thCannes International Film Festival in 1957. Giulietta Masina won the prize as Best actress. In 1958 this movie won the Academy Award as Best Foreign Language film.

If you’ve never seen Nights of Cabiria (and you have two spare hours) I suggest you to try HERE